Preston Manning

Preston Manning (born June 10 1942) is the current Prime Minister of Canada since 2008 as well as the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and have been often called the "Father of Modern Canadian Conservatism for his role in Canadian politics.

He was born from a conservative family and his father was Ernest Manning from the Social Credit Party and the Premier of Alberta when he was one years old.

Biography
In the mid 1980s, Preston Manning and his associates realised the increasing alienation of Western Canada and growing political discontent from the traditional federal parties in Canada. He and his associates eventually formed the Reform Party of Canada in 1987, the same year that the United States collapsed.

The Reform Party immediately gain success in both federal level and regional level and the economic ramification of the collapse led to the failure of Brian Mulroney's government and the Progressive Conservatives losing to the New Democratic Party in the 1989 election. It seems that the Reform Party was on course to become a potential replacement for the PCs.

However, the Reform Party was unable to gain support from Eastern part of Canada and the stabilisation period under the NDP saw the resurgence of mainstream political parties including the PCs after Joe Clark's revitalisation. In the 2000 election, Reform saw a devastating defeat and Manning resigned from Party leadership and effectively dissolve the party.

The new Liberal government was not successful however and was caught in a major scandal. Inspired by his loyal supporters, he decided to return to politics again and joined Peter MacKay's Progressive Conservative Government in 2003. However, the Party lost to the New Democrats in the 2006 election. Less than a month after the failed election, the Progressive Conservative elected Preston Manning as their new leader. In 2008, as a champion for populism and conservatism, he won the election in a landslide victory.